“So, Cats or Dogs?”
“Cats” I reply. It has always been that, but I realized only now that this duality also explains the concept of love and how we perceive it. Ask any dog lover and they’ll say they love a dog because they know how to reciprocate the love given to them, but we cat lovers aren’t really looking forward for something to be ‘reciprocated’. Such is also the duality of love. Some love with all their heart and look for fulfillment and want their love to be reciprocated, while some of us just love because we love. We give our heart not to get something in return, but just because we want to give. To be deeply in love means requiring no consolation or reward back. We don’t hold the other accountable when they do not meet our idea of love, but give all that we have. I know my cats won’t come when I call them, but that doesn’t make me love them any less. And maybe I’ll smother them with all my heart and still love them as they slip away from me and sit on a table beside me. It will not wag its tail nor follow me around all day, but deep down I know it loves me, and even though it will never make a grand show, I shall keep loving it with all I have. And thus is my way even with people, the ones I love; I spend my heart and my love, and even though you’d never show, I never shall let you go. Isn’t that what love is, giving the best of you, because you care and not because you want the best back? Isn’t that what love is, a relinquishing of oneself? Because, in the end, love is the best thing we do.
“Cats” I reply. It has always been that, but I realized only now that this duality also explains the concept of love and how we perceive it. Ask any dog lover and they’ll say they love a dog because they know how to reciprocate the love given to them, but we cat lovers aren’t really looking forward for something to be ‘reciprocated’. Such is also the duality of love. Some love with all their heart and look for fulfillment and want their love to be reciprocated, while some of us just love because we love. We give our heart not to get something in return, but just because we want to give. To be deeply in love means requiring no consolation or reward back. We don’t hold the other accountable when they do not meet our idea of love, but give all that we have. I know my cats won’t come when I call them, but that doesn’t make me love them any less. And maybe I’ll smother them with all my heart and still love them as they slip away from me and sit on a table beside me. It will not wag its tail nor follow me around all day, but deep down I know it loves me, and even though it will never make a grand show, I shall keep loving it with all I have. And thus is my way even with people, the ones I love; I spend my heart and my love, and even though you’d never show, I never shall let you go. Isn’t that what love is, giving the best of you, because you care and not because you want the best back? Isn’t that what love is, a relinquishing of oneself? Because, in the end, love is the best thing we do.